If I go now, shall
I leave it to run wild in
the end—the fence of
this spring garden where the one
who is gone had set her heart

Meaning

If I go now, shall I leave it to run wild in the end—the fence of this spring garden where the one who is gone had set her heart?

Commentary

Part Two: Maboroshi

　Having settled on taking vows, Genji began sorting his belongings and thinking about the futures of those who served him. And then it came to him that the spring garden Murasaki no Ue had taken such care to make would be left to go wild once he was gone. He spoke this poem to himself. He hesitated in this way again and again, and in the end let the whole year pass without acting. The pull between the wish to leave the world and the hold the world still had on him runs through the chapter.

　"If I go now" is taking vows. "Leave it to run wild in the end" asks whether that is what he would be doing. "The one who is gone" is Murasaki no Ue. "Had set her heart" is having cared for something. "The fence of this spring garden" stands for the whole garden she made. The paradox—that his own decision would spoil what she left—is where his reasons for hesitating are located.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other